Left in the Dark
by random echo
Summary: Claire gets a strange phone call at the night, and finds herself getting as far away from Crossroads county she can. Although she runs into some stranger people, and finds out that the S.T.A.R.S have been captured...
1. Part one

**__**

Left in the Dark

Authors note: This used to be two different fics, until I combined them, some of these lines might seem a little familiar from somewhere, but sorry about that. Also, sorry for the grammar/spelling mistakes there might be, and thank you to everyone who reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own any Resident Evil characters, or etc.

Claire Redfield sat up in her flat single bed, and glanced over at the ringing phone.

"Who in their right mind would be calling at-" Claire looked at the clock on the dresser "-three A.M. in the morning." She cursed under her breath, and picked up the phone.

"Claire Redfield, or Francisca Akagi?" A male voice gruffly asked. 

Claire gulped, getting together her speech.

"Claire, who's this?" She urged to get straight to the subject of this phone call.

There was a moment of silence on the line, until the voice spoke up again, and what he said was rather disturbing. 

"Get out of there!" Then the line went dead.

Claire held the phone for a moment more, letting it all sink in. Normally she would have just shrugged, and forgot about it. Still, there was something different about this call. Something wasn't right. Claire pushed the covers out of her way, and sat up on the bed. 

She examined the things around her, it was a small room. Her dorm room in Crossroads county collage. There was a tiny window in the center, and a wooden door to the left. Two trunks at the end of the bed, and somehow, a dresser squeeze in the middle of the two beds. There were the two beds lined on the wall.

Claire had shared this room with a girl named Francisca Akagi, her mother the infamous scientist Ritsuko Akagi (the name is from NGE if you noticed)

It was all Chris's idea to have her return to collage. He thought that would be safer, but what's safe when you have Umbrella assassins on your tail.

That's why Claire took this phone call seriously. Claire wasn't going to leave until a morning, but something scared her. Putting the whole collage in danger for herself. She glanced over at the other bed, Francisca was gone, and there were a few of her guns laying on the bed.

"What luck." Claire muttered under her breath, and tied the bow into her hair quickly. Then she changed into her motorcycling outfit, similar to what she wore in RE2, and had the words 'Crossroads county' on the back.

Throwing a few things into her pockets, she grabbed her keys to the motorcycle, and stuffed them in her pocket. Slowly opening the wooden door, she creep down the dark halls, until she reached the stairs. Then going down to the bottom floor, went through swinging doors, and left the dorm building. Crossing the woods to the parking lot, she silently hopped on her bike, and watched in the distance. To her surprise, and horror, or which ever came first, a black van pulled up in front of the building. She quickly slapped the helmet on, and only hoped the shadows would hide her. 

Then roaring up the engine took off in the distance.

*********************************

The road seemed to go on forever, as the sun beat down. Claire whipped her forehead, then closed her visor once more, taking off her helmet for only a moment. She was speeding down the path on her motorcycle, her brownish red hair flickering in the wind behind her.

Claire seemed to used to this now. It was at least two days since she took off on the road.

Claire's stomach grumbled, as she passed a restaurant. 

"Guess it won't hurt this time." She reassured herself as she pulled up into the driveway.

Stuffing her keys into her pocket, after locking her back, proceeded into the restaurant.

It was a nice place, there were tables in the back, but she just went to the bar.

"What can I get you?" Asked a waitress, her black hair tied up in a bun on the top of her head.

"Normally, I'd probably have a number five, but since nothing seems to be normal here, I'll have a normal coffee, and number two." The waitress wrote it down, and gave a small chuckle. 

Noticing Claire's motorcycle outfit, which stated Crossroads county(where she attended collage) on the back, she added something.

"Not from around here I assume, traveling?" 

Claire nodded.

"Where to?" The waitress asked again. 

Claire shook her head, this one she couldn't answer.

"I don't know. Where ever the road takes me I guess." Sighing she closed the menu.

The waitress took it, and turned around to retrieve her coffee.

Claire searched around the room. Her eyes fell upon this one group of people. A watery smile appeared on her face.

"Funny, that reminds me of Leon, and Sherry." She said to herself more then anyone else.

Aware of the waitress arrival, she wiped the thought out of her mind.

The waitress sat the coffee down in front of her, and pointed toward the milk, sugar, and etc. Claire grabbed a sugar, and watched the waitress sit down on the other side of the bar. It was just then that Claire noticed there weren't many people in, and night was slipping in.

"So where was your original destination?" The waitress piped up after a moment of silence.

"Pardon?" It was just now that Claire noticed she was being spoken to, she hadn't talked to anybody for awhile, other then that cheap talk she got everywhere.

"Original destination, or did you just hop on your bike, and dash out of there?" 

Claire had to think about that for a moment.

"Both I guess you could say. I didn't really have a destination, only that I wanted to get as far away from Crossroads county as possible." Claire said at the moment that waitress brought over the food.

She began to eat quickly so she could get on the road again.

"Anyone special you left behind?" This waitress was nosey, but Claire hadn't told anyone for awhile, so it was nice to talk to someone.

"Someone....but nothing serious, Francisca was just a collage friend... didn't have anyone close other then my brother and Leon....and Sherry....and Steve....." Claire stopped herself, knowing she had already said to much.

"Who you running from?" This question surprised Claire.

She was running, but never thought of it that way. Not from anyone individual she knew around her, Umbrella agents somewhat, but probably just-

"Myself." Claire said roughly, and finishing eating, paid with a large tip, and left.

Coming out of the store, she got back on her bike.

She turned it once, and it seemed dead.

"What oh come on!" She turned it a few more times, until it roared. 

"Yes!" At least her motorcycle was still working.

Behind her, she noticed a black van pull up in front of the store. Watching closing on her rear view mirror.

Out of the black van, hopped a few agents. What it looked to be, they were armed with M-16's.

"What's going on here!" Claire asked herself, not expecting an answer.

The agents jumped out, and spilt up around the building.

A few came in her direction.

"No!" She loudly whispered, and cursed under her breath. 

She cranked in the keys, and they motorcycle roared to life.

"Stop right there!" She heard them yell. 

Cranking up the speed, and drove toward the road, well aware they were on her tail. In a few moments, a few smaller black cars were on her tail.

Darting from lane to lane, she had to plane to out run them some how. Her heart was beating in her chest rapidly, as she swung past a blue car that was slowly driving. 

They honked madly at her, but ignoring that she pushed the gears even farther.

Someone in the car must have opened fire, because a bullet nearly missed her head.

"These people aren't joking." She yelled aloud swerved the bike to the left, and nearly missing that blue car again.

It might have been following her, but that was the least of her worry's. Nearly missing another bullet, she speed into the dark tunnel. The black cars also sped up.

'Their going to ram you!" Claire's mind screamed, as the car hit the back of her wheel causing it to twist out of control. 

The loud screech as the tires burned against the ground, and the motorcycle was heading for a crash course toward the wall of the tunnel. Claire did her best to yank the handle one last time, and a plain dawned on her, the car was on her right side, so when the motorcycle swerved again, she yanked the handles to the left one last time, and jumped from the bike. There was a loud skidding noise, then Claire covered her head hoping this distance she jumped would be enough to save her. 

The crash ignited the fuel tanks, and brought a fire to the air. Claire got up of her two feet, and ran how she knew best. There was a sudden explosion of fire, and ash, that ran through the end of the tunnel, and took Claire with it. 

Claire cause a thunk when she hit the ground. Still covering her head, only a few rocks landed on her back.

Regaining her vision, she stood up knowing those agent freaks would be on her tail again, began to run. To her surprise the same blue car was stopped on the side of the road, just outside of the tunnel.

Police sirens could be heard from the back, Claire did her best to pass the car without much notice, but the door swung open causing her to fall backward.

A girl semi-long brown hair, swung out of the car. Enough to help Claire up and say.

"Get in now! We're here to help." They demanded returning in the car.

Claire obeyed, seeing there wasn't much else she could do, and jumped in the car.

She sat on the black leather seat. The girl flashed her a quick smile, and yelled to a brownish- red hair man up front.

"Step on it, the cops will be on our tail in any second!" The driver hit the gas, and the car sped down the drive at full speed.

Claire sat back in her seat, and sighed, but then turned to the girl.

"Who are you?" She questioned, her nerves still up tight. 

The girl who looked around Claire's age smiled.

"The names Eliza Walker. This is Derrick Walker. Brother and sister, anyway, you must be Claire Redfield." The women directed toward her, Claire nodded.

"Good to see that you believed Derrick's message. Those agents are from Umbrella. We heard about it from a friend of Derricks. Deon Kennedy or something."

"Its Leon Eliza." Derrick corrected her.

Eliza nodded, and just turned back.

"Anyway, I wanted to help, because your brother, Chris had helped me escape from Spencer manor. Anyway, I was on there on a mission. Its a organization to help stop Umbrella... and a few other things. The leader wanted to have you join...." She seemed to have a hard time explaining.

Although her brother Derrick was watching the rear-view mirror.

"Girls, sorry for the rude awaking, but we have company." No doubt there were more black cars chasing after them.

"Ready for some target practice." Eliza asked handing her a shotgun, and Derrick opened the windows.

Claire was confused at first, then took the shotgun, and leaned out the window.

The first shot the driver dodged, but the next one hit the tire causing the car to swerve out of control, and stop another car.

"Right, 3 down, 3 to go." Eliza added.

Eliza and Claire targeted the rest of them, until all the cars were off there tail momentary.

Then Eliza turned over to Claire and awaited the answer.

Normally Claire would flat out refuse, but seeming since nothing was normal around her answered.

"What kind of mission?" Eliza smiled, and nodded happily as the car sped on. 

********

Please review, and tell me what you think(I'll get the next chapters out fasters if I have reviews.)


	2. Part two

**__**

Left in the Dark

Authors note: This used to be two different fics, until I combined them, some of these lines might seem a little familiar from somewhere, but sorry about that. Also, sorry for the grammar/spelling mistakes there might be, and thank you to everyone who reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own any Resident Evil characters, or etc.

"Well, its good that you'd like to join." Concluded Eliza, but Claire stopped her right there.

"Whoa, wait up. I didn't say I'd join yet, just know what's going on." Claire said, she could have sworn she saw Derrick snicker from the front, for her being so cautious maybe.

Eliza looked taken a back for a second, but then must have understood what she just said. Leaning up front she pointed to the drivers seat.

"Derrick, get off your lazy @$$ and pass me that file." Eliza said motioning to some document.

Derrick leaned forward, and handed back a paper, Claire immediately noticed wait it was.

"This is one of Umbrellas documents, we looked up. Its simple once you get hold of there password, show you it later." Eliza handed off the paper to Claire.

Claire studied it for a moment. It really was from Umbrella with the icon on the upper right corner. Below, it had various bars that separated the things. She noticed most of it,

'Claire Redfield- surviving civilian

Age:19

Sex: Female....' It went done all her information, even to her school Crossroads.

What caught her eye on the bottom was a box.

'Last location verified, Crossroads County collage, dorm number 721...'

Eliza noticed it to, and pointed.

"That's where we found out where to find you." Eliza turned around to look out the window.

"Derrick! There after us again. Claire, you knew you were being monitored by Umbrella right." She said in-between, then jumped up to the front seat.

"Derrick, let me drive, your much better at shooting." Eliza complained, motioning toward the wheel.

To Claire's surprise, Derrick flat out refused.

"I'm sorry, but I bet me and Claire here rather not be sitting in the passenger seats at ground zero sis." Eliza looked pissed, and Derrick reached down for the shot gun.

Claire wasn't sure what made her say it, or talk it the first place.

"I'll take the wheel." She offered.

Derrick glanced back at her, then nodded, and jumped in the backseat, until Claire could make it up front. Claire found driving this car a lot different then her motorcycle, seemed faster, and bigger. 

Opening the windows, shots filled her ears.

Nothing she had her sub-machine gun, grabbed it, and opened her one window. Keeping one eye on the road she shot back. Another bullet knocked the gun from her hands.

"Eliza get the wheel!" She clutched her hands, to find it was bleeding mildly.

Eliza put one arm on the wheel guiding it. Claire turned her attention back to her hand, until the car swerved to the right, left, and right again causing Claire to bang her should against the wall.

"Eliza, where'd you get your license!" Claire grabbed back the wheel. 

Slowly the gun shots faded, and Derrick, and Claire switched seats once more. It seemed like a fifteen minute drive, until they pulled up into a hotel.

"Sure this is safe." Claire as, grimacing at the own sight of her wounded hand.

"Already checked it out." Answered Eliza. 

They went in, and took the elevator to the second floor.

Eliza noticed Claire's hand, and brought out some bandages. Wrapping it nicely, made Claire wonder if Eliza was a doctor, if not, she should be.

The phone began to buzz of the hook. Claire stared at it a moment, wondering if they should answer it, but Derrick made it there first. 

"Hello..." He picked up the phone. 

There was a soft voice muttering under the line.

"Do you know where she is?" 

"Akagi, right...." 

"No, Redfield..."

"Claire Redfield her brother is Chris..."

"Former member of R.P.D. S.T.A.R.S."

"No, not any time soon..."

"Yeah, stay in one piece tell I see you next..."

"Its a fight to survive she knows..."

"Oh no..... heading over there soon...hasn't joined yet..."

"right...."

Derrick hung up the phone, and head his head low in defeat. Eliza noticed this to. Claire felt around for her address book, that was stabbing her in her back pocket, and laid it on the bed.

"Who was that?" Claire asked, since he said her name far more then once.

Derrick sighed, then turned to Eliza.

"Eliza, get out, I need to speak to Claire." Derrick demanded, Eliza was about to open her mouth to protest, but Derrick stopped her, and shooed her out.

Eliza left, into the bedroom, with a disapproving look on her face, the entire way there. 

Claire waited paternity, until Eliza was out of ear shot, and turned to Derrick.

"Claire, you did have a brother named Chris right?" Claire nodded her head.

"He used to be a member of S.T.A.R.S. had a team mate Jill Valentine correct?"

Claire nodded her head once more, what was he aiming at.

"Do you know if he was still in Pairs?" Claire wondered about this one, no he couldn't be, he saw her to Crossroads, and had no reason to go back.

"No, I think he was at Silver city. Why'd you ask?" Derrick let out a sigh of relief. 

"Its a lon-" Derrick was cut off. 

Eliza burst in the room, and came in running.

"Got- to -get- scan-copter-run-dash-laser-gun-agent-help." Eliza gasped for breath.

"Breath!" Claire shouted as she shook her, Eliza instead of answering, grabbed Claire's hand, and ran.

They dashed down the halls, for sure going as fast as they could.

"What's going on!?!" Derrick demanded to know as he two was chasing after them.

Eliza never stopped to talk, as they ran down the exit stairs, and dashed toward the parking lot.

"Get down." Claire ordered just catching on, they jumped down into the ground, as the building before their eyes burst into flames. 

Black vans were just leaving from every direction, as people dashed out of that building. "Monsters!" One women screamed while waving her hands rapidly in the air, running as fast as she could.

"No...no....not this again.....have to g-get away....not again...." Claire muttered to herself as sirens filled the air.

"Not again, I'm not going through this living night mare again!" Claire stood up, and began to back away from the scene.

It was true, she didn't want to see it again, didn't want to lose any more friends, or put anyone in danger.

She didn't want to think every breath she'd take might be her last. She didn't want to fear for her life every second. She didn't want to know the horrifying truth that would haunt her dreams forever. She didn't want to die.

She wanted to do so many things before she died. Claire had just found her brother, and now split up again. She had promised Sherry she'd take her to Disney, she promised Leon she wouldn't try anything stupid. Claire wanted to _escape._

Doing what any normal person would do, flipped around, and began to dash. She was almost out of the drive way, before something caught her sweater.

"Don't run away!" Eliza screamed, almost fear in her voice.

Claire paused for a moment, that would be running away. That would be running away from herself.

"Here." Eliza shoved something hard in Claire's hands.

She glanced down to find an I.D. card. The words Iris Incorp. Division 7 bh&m.... Claire Redfield...

"We can help get rid of Umbrella, those walking zombies that are always trying to screw up my life!" Eliza added, someone who seemed very sensitive about this.

Claire paused for a moment, then a smile played at her lips.

Pulling out the magnum from before, she loaded a round, and turned to Derrick.

"Can't be sure, but I take it that means your in." Derrick said.

Claire nodded.

"Good, anyway there's a Umbrella abandoned faculty that still holds dear information. It used to be one of the Ashford's family's links, but since there er- downfall its not well guarded." Derrick added.

Claire noticed the building still in flames.

"We're going to break in there, get all we can, and get out alive. Promise on your badge." Claire pointed toward her I.D. card.

Eliza put her hand in, and Derrick did after a few seconds.

"Man, Claire, those guys are really after you." Eliza added, as the blue car slowly pulled out of the driveway, watching the building, and fire fighters just arriving.

"They knew we got out, why did you think they left?" Claire paused for a moment to answer her own question.

Quickly feeling her pockets for her address book, it was no where to be found. Eliza watched in shock, probably didn't know what was going on, but knew it was serious. Claire remembered how she had Sherry, Leon, and the S.T.A.R.S. members named circled, and gasped in horror.

"Derrick, can you get us to Silver City, and fast!" Claire said more as a command then question.

Eliza added to that. "Yeah, step on it!" The blue car took off quickly heading down the road....

*********Leon's pOv*********

The young blond girl, named Sherry, sat only a few feet away from the TV., watching cheap cartoons. I on the other hand, laid back on the couch right behind it, in a shorts, and white t-shirt myself. 

I didn't need to look around to know this was a cheap hotel room. Sherry did deserve better, but we were constantly on the run, so never had a place to call home.

Sherry clicked off the TV. and turned to me, studying me for a bit.

She opened her mouth, here it comes.

"Leon, when's Claire coming back?" There she said it, again.

She's been asking that everyday. I keep answering 'soon', but really have no idea. The last I had heard from her was the email of distress, and that wasn't good. Although I wasn't just about to call Chris and ask either. I really hope she got out of there alive. It would really hurt Sherry...and me. Besides the point, I took a sip of my coke treasuring the flavor before I spoke.

"I'm not sure Sherry." If she gets the same answer everyday, why's she keep asking.

Still, Claire would visit everyday afterward. Then every week, then every month, then she stopped coming. I'm not sure if anyone else had noticed this, but Sherry sure did. Sometimes when I came in, she'd think I was Claire, and come running. Then when she found out it was me, returned to her waiting space. Sometimes she'd just sit there waiting for Claire to come, but she never did. One day Claire gave a call, the day before she disappeared to Pairs, and got caught that is.

I'd guess her brother might have saved her, but even then she left somewhere after that. Once a year, she'd send Sherry a birthday card. The only clue we had to where she was, was the copyright in Crossroads county. 

Still the truth is, I already heard Crossroad was raided by agents, and half the collage blown up. That doesn't seem to good anymore. The last part really scares me. Something inside of me wants to tell Sherry she's not coming back. Its just because she kept disappearing, I don't even want to believe it myself.

The doorbell snapped me out of my little daydream. Hopping up, I went to answer it. Sherry didn't follow, I guess she is beginning to believe Claire isn't coming back either. 

I slowly opened the door, to make sure a gun wasn't going to be pointed at my head. Instead, I opened the door to a girl, long black hair thrown back in a bow, green eyes flashing warningly. A long normal face, for that point anyway.

"Can I help you?" I tried my best to be polite, but it sounded beyond rude.

"Cut the crap, anyway, I'm Akagi, here to tell you something about Claire Redfield, you know her right." 

I paused. Akagi, didn't that name sound familiar. If I wasn't mistaken Francisca Akagi was Claire's friend, or something. 

"I need to tell you something very important." She let herself in, and locked the door behind her.

"You are all in grave danger, and need to escape now."


End file.
